EPT Barcelona: How a trip to Prague rolled on to Barcelona for Darin Short
Momentum can be a wonderful thing in poker, and once you find yourself on the PokerStars Power Path, sometimes you can find it continuing to unfurl like a red carpet in front of you as you just keep walking and walking.
Darin Short, from Kelowna, Canada, is in the middle of quite a run. Late last year, he won a Silver Pass online and decided to play at the EPT/Eureka festival in Prague. And while he was there, he was the lucky player picked out at the Silver Pass meet-up drinks and handed a Gold Pass (worth around €10,000) for no other reason than it is a fun thing for PokerStars to do.
It’s one of the many benefits of winning a Silver Pass. You get a ticket in a kind of lucky draw, where there’s an even bigger bonus on offer. Someone has to win it, and in Prague, that someone was Short.
“Totally random,” a disbelieving Short says today. “I just won a draw!”
Short targeted a return to Europe to cash in that Gold Pass this year, which explains his presence here in Barcelona and a run at the EPT Main Event.
THREE MAKE THE TRIP TO SPAIN
He was originally planning a solo trip, hoping to improve upon his only previous visit to Spain where he was pickpocketed on his one day in Madrid. But he then extended an invitation to his mum to join him in Spain, which she graciously accepted. And in turn, she offered a trip to Short’s 18-year-old niece as a gift for graduating high school.
And so a travelling trio formed for the journey to Catalonia. All, essentially, because of Short’s victory in that online satellite, which cost him no more than $11.
“It’s a little more than poker,” Short says. “It’s great…Today they went to some markets. Yesterday, we went on a bit of a wine tour, went out to Monserrat. I think they’ve been to the beach a few days.”
The flexibility of the Power Path allowed Short to spend some of his expenses on an AirBnB for the family, with the remainder going on buy-ins to the Cup, the PokerStars Open and now the EPT Main Event. Flexibility is also a feature of his job, as an inspector of oil plants, which permits him the chance to indulge his passion for travel.
“I’m good through Day 3, but if I make Day 4 I’ll be calling them and telling them someone else needs to cover me for a few more days,” he says.
He continues: “I’ve always been a traveller, and I love combining travel and poker. It gives me a place to go. I wouldn’t have thought to come to Barcelona, but it’s great to come here for a week, see the city.”
Darin Short chose Barcelona to cash in his Gold Pass
HOW TO EXPLAIN THE GOLD PASS?
While his poker-playing acquaintances understand what’s going on, it can be a bit more difficult to explain this jet-set life to people who don’t follow the game very closely.
“If you’re a pro, it’s easy,” he says. “It’s ‘Hey look, I’m a poker player, I travel around.’ But for me, it’s tough. I’m a recreational player, but I’m posting hand updates on Instagram, which I don’t think 90 percent of the people understand. But they’re all excited. They think I’m a pro poker player when they see that. But it’s fun, you just have to explain…I don’t know, it’s pretty neat.”
Short is among those who has been especially pleased to see Phil Ivey wandering through the tournament room in Barcelona, though it’s not his first brush with poker royalty. Immediately after his successful trip to Prague last year, Short hopped on a plane to Las Vegas and joined a satellite for the WPT event taking place back-to-back with the EPT.
Despite having had no sleep, he won through to the first $10K event of his career and took his place among the stars.
“Chino Rheem comes to my table and says hi to everyone. Except me. Because he knows who everyone else is. It’s all people I watch on TV. It’s so much fun doing that kind of thing.”
Suffice to say, Barcelona is living up to all expectations.
“I love it,” Short says. “I. Love. It. I would fully endorse the Power Path.”
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